Koalas @ Shaw's 11/17

I got a last minute notice that the Koala's were playing at Shaw's and since I had never seen them, I headed over. The Koalas feature Lori Barbero on drums from the fantastic Babes In Toyland. Wonderful drummer, amazing person.

First I sat through this band that I don't know their name and the only reason I would want to would be so I could avoid seeing them in the future. They had a song that was supposed to be dark and depressing. But the singer sang "mama's into razors and dope" like she was in the Patridge Family singing C'Mon get happy. She also sang a song about a girl who was doing dirty deeds and was pretty much in the gutter. "In a taxi with a guys hand down the front of her skirt and drugs up his nose." You can tell that this is far from anything this singer has ever experienced. No feeling behind any of it at all. The song that had the most emotion in it was called "Britney Spears Got Married Last Night." And of course they had to have a song calling Bush the anti christ, which could have been funny but they sang it in the same sing song way as every other tune. They were all together crappy.

But the Koalas kicked ass. Their vocalist has an even more punk PJ Harvey sound with an echo. And the music is a perfect grunge/punk/straight rock sound. I was really impressed and really mad that I had waited this long to see the band. I will hopefully be checking them out this wednesday as well.